State seeks capital punishment for all accused -The Asian Age

The prosecution is presenting its arguments in the court about the grenade attacks that occurred in the capital's Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004.

Special prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol completed the presentation of all points and counterpoints yesterday. He has urged the court to hand down capital punishment (death penalty) to all the 49 accused in the case.

Simultaneously, he has requested the court to renounce the bail of all the bailed out accused and to send them back to jail. Public Prosecutor Abu Abdullah Bhuiyan is going to state his arguments on Wednesday.The proceedings of two cases in connection with the grenade attacks are going on in the court building on

Nazim Uddin Road in old Dhaka at the Speedy Trial Tribunal in the court of judge Shahed Nuruddin. Mosharraf Hossain Kajol started presenting his arguments from 11:48 am on Tuesday and finished at 2:45 pm afternoon.

Mosharraf Hossain Kajol said that at that time the country was conducted from Hawa Bhaban. Tareq Rahman was Hawa Bhaban's administrator. He ran whole Bangladesh with his directives.

Tareq Rahman in connivance with militants carried out the grenade attacks on 21st August 2004 to grab power in an illegal and murderous way, Mosharraf Hossain Kajol said. He termed Tareq Rahman the mastermind of that attack.

Arguments regarding this case were placed for the 117th day including Tuesday. The defendants put forward their points on 89 working days while the state presented its angles and interpretations on 27 working days. Arguments in favor of 45 accused were finished earlier.

Advocate Mosharraf Hossain Kajol said that the operation of the grenade attack was named "light snacks" (halka nasta). It was a code name given by the assailants.

The attackers wanted to feed "light snacks" to Sheikh Hasina, Mosharraf Hossain Kajol said. The assailants' aim was to murder Sheikh Hasina in the way Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, his family including his minor son Sheikh Russell was assassinated on 15th August 1975.

Mosharraf Hossain Kajol remarked that the attackers wanted to turn Bangladesh into Pakistan by killing Sheikh Hasina. They wanted to eliminate Awami League. The same conspirators had killed former finance minister ASM Kibria and Ahsan Ullah Master, Mosharraf Hossain Kajol told the court.

Mosharraf Hossain Kajol read out the confessional statement of Mufti Hannan which Mufti Hannan had accorded under Section 164. Mosharraf Hossain Kajol said that Mufti Hannan confessed that it was decided to kill Sheikh Hasina with grenades. Mufti Hannan made this confession on 11 January 2007.

Mosharraf Hossain Kajol said that the target of the grenade attacks on 21st August 2004 was to murder Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who was opposition leader at that time. He added that if it happened in any other country all accused would have been executed on charges of treason.

Chief Prosecutor Syed Rezaur Rahman said that the grenade attacks on 21st August 2004 were carried out under direct instructions from Tareq Rahman. Tareq Rahman made this conspiracy with former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu, former state home minister Lutfuzzaman Babar and other plotters.

All the accused had the same target, common motive and identical intention to murder Sheikh Hasina, Syed Rezaur Rahman added. He requested the court to punish all the accused with death penalty under Section 302/34.